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Same goes for France and Spain, as far as I can tell.

by Rygian 4y ago

lawn 4y ago
And the Nordic countries and probably many more European countries.
- hourago 4y ago
  But there are always pressure to reduce public "costs" to reduce taxes. That European health care is better for the average person is not a given, it is something that Europeans need to keep pressuring to not lose. I have seen degrading healthcare in Spain, for example, as banks received millions of Euros during the housing crisis money for hospitals shrunk. But when things got better it takes a lot of fighting to just get some money back into public services. Part of what makes Europe such an amazing place to live is good public health care. It improves all well being metrics.
  - dijit 4y ago
    > But there are always pressure to reduce public "costs" to reduce taxes. You are right for some definition of this; but in Sweden people are very happy to pay tax even if it's a lot, because they see themselves as getting a lot back for it. That's not true when everything is mismanaged and underfunded though; which is the current case. Healthcare is in the grips of private hands for other reasons in Sweden, and that's that the healthcare system doesn't pay well for directly employed doctors- this leads to everyone working for the private health services and since there is a dearth of doctors working for the government: they must hire these companies.
  - unity1001 4y ago
    Nothing you couldn't fix: Every time the private interests increase their pressure to privatize things, vote for a more left-wing party in proportion to the pressure that the private lobbies are putting on the government. If they go full postal Ayn Rand, you go full communist in voting. As historically verified by the experience of many countries, nothing less than this fixes that problem. If they pull the rope one inch, you pull it two inches.
satysin 4y ago
As someone that has lived in both the UK and [redacted], I have to say the [redacted] medical service is several levels above the UK NHS. Even during the pandemic I had excellent care. Compared to a friend of mine that had gallstones and was in terrible pain and was told the wait would be a year. He ended up paying to go private as he was in such pain. Had his gall bladder removed. I had a few health issues myself over the past two years. I never had an issue getting a same day doctors appointment, never had to wait more than 5 days for a scan (MRIs) and no more than two weeks for a procedure (gastroscopy under GA). Really opened my eyes to how bad things are with the NHS right now :( Of course the [redacted] system is not perfect, claiming so would be stupid. But when all of my friends and family back in the UK complain about getting GP appointments or month long waits for scans I can't help but think they're doing something very wrong when [redacted] has a similar population size, GDP, etc. and my experience has never been anywhere near as difficult or slow as in the UK. Even before the pandemic getting an appointment with my doctor in the UK was a pain. So much so I had sort of conditioned myself into avoiding do so unless it was something important so I avoided it the same in [redacted] when I first moved here. But seeing how functional the system is it really changed my attitude towards visiting my doctor. I am far more proactive now getting anything that hangs around more than a week checked out without question.

Same goes for France and Spain, as far as I can tell.

by Rygian 4y ago

Same goes for France and Spain, as far as I can tell.

lawn 4y ago

And the Nordic countries and probably many more European countries.

hourago 4y ago
But there are always pressure to reduce public "costs" to reduce taxes. That European health care is better for the average person is not a given, it is something that Europeans need to keep pressuring to not lose. I have seen degrading healthcare in Spain, for example, as banks received millions of Euros during the housing crisis money for hospitals shrunk. But when things got better it takes a lot of fighting to just get some money back into public services. Part of what makes Europe such an amazing place to live is good public health care. It improves all well being metrics.
- dijit 4y ago
  > But there are always pressure to reduce public "costs" to reduce taxes. You are right for some definition of this; but in Sweden people are very happy to pay tax even if it's a lot, because they see themselves as getting a lot back for it. That's not true when everything is mismanaged and underfunded though; which is the current case. Healthcare is in the grips of private hands for other reasons in Sweden, and that's that the healthcare system doesn't pay well for directly employed doctors- this leads to everyone working for the private health services and since there is a dearth of doctors working for the government: they must hire these companies.
- unity1001 4y ago
  Nothing you couldn't fix: Every time the private interests increase their pressure to privatize things, vote for a more left-wing party in proportion to the pressure that the private lobbies are putting on the government. If they go full postal Ayn Rand, you go full communist in voting. As historically verified by the experience of many countries, nothing less than this fixes that problem. If they pull the rope one inch, you pull it two inches.

satysin 4y ago

As someone that has lived in both the UK and [redacted], I have to say the [redacted] medical service is several levels above the UK NHS. Even during the pandemic I had excellent care. Compared to a friend of mine that had gallstones and was in terrible pain and was told the wait would be a year. He ended up paying to go private as he was in such pain. Had his gall bladder removed. I had a few health issues myself over the past two years. I never had an issue getting a same day doctors appointment, never had to wait more than 5 days for a scan (MRIs) and no more than two weeks for a procedure (gastroscopy under GA). Really opened my eyes to how bad things are with the NHS right now :( Of course the [redacted] system is not perfect, claiming so would be stupid. But when all of my friends and family back in the UK complain about getting GP appointments or month long waits for scans I can't help but think they're doing something very wrong when [redacted] has a similar population size, GDP, etc. and my experience has never been anywhere near as difficult or slow as in the UK. Even before the pandemic getting an appointment with my doctor in the UK was a pain. So much so I had sort of conditioned myself into avoiding do so unless it was something important so I avoided it the same in [redacted] when I first moved here. But seeing how functional the system is it really changed my attitude towards visiting my doctor. I am far more proactive now getting anything that hangs around more than a week checked out without question.